Gloves are off for plucky Pasfield

Sydney's reserve goalkeeper is poised to play outfield against
Newcastle, writes Aaron Timms.

IN A a sport where having runs on the board and experience under
the belt counts for so much, Justin Pasfield is a refreshing
anomaly: a man with neither runs nor experience, and with neither a
board nor a belt to place them in.

That's not to say he doesn't have experience in his chosen
position. He does. But after spending the past two years playing
second fiddle to Clint Bolton, Sydney FC's young reserve goalkeeper
will have the chance to command the stage as a soloist tomorrow
night.

The twist is this: he won't be coming on as a keeper. Instead,
years of shot-stopping practice in the goalmouth, arduous roll
drills, and punishing jump work will be swept aside. The pristine
gloves and spotless one-colour kit that are the birthright of
reserve goalkeepers everywhere will be quietly packed away. Arms,
quite possibly, will be taped to sides.

And then the 21-year-old will swallow his pride and march onto
the field to make his Sydney FC debut in a completely foreign role:
as an outfield player.

There is still a chance that it may not happen. But such is the
severity of Sydney's injury woes that, with just two players for
coach Terry Butcher to call on off the bench (Pasfield and Matthew
Bingley), the odds are very much in favour of the reserve keeper
making an appearance against Newcastle.

"It's probably not the best way for me to make my A-League
debut," Pasfield, admirably good-humoured in spite of the absurdity
of the situation, acknowledged. "But if the team needs me, I'll do
it. If you're a keeper and you're asked to go out on the field,
it's just one of those things you have to do."

Pasfield's record as a keeper includes appearances for the
Australian under-20 and under-23 sides. His career as an outfield
player, however, can be summed up in one word: brief. It began when
he was 11 and attended his first football training session. It
lasted about 30 seconds. "There was no one in goal, so the coach
said, 'Why don't you have a go?' So that's how I started," Pasfield
explained. Eight long years in the outfield wilderness followed,
before Pasfield finally "came home" to the middle of the park,
playing 15 minutes as a striker for the NSW schoolboys' team two
years ago.

His summation of that experience is as succinct as his striking
resume: "I've always been a keeper."

That's not to say that keepers don't make good outfield players.
The history of the game is littered with examples of the glory that
often awaits whenever the big man in the fluorescent shorts gets
thrown forward (usually after a quick change of shorts). South
America provides an especially rich source, Chile's Jose Luis
Chilavert and Mexico's Jorge Campos ranking as the finest exponents
of the goalscoring goalkeeper's art.

More recently, we saw Portuguese No.1 Ricardo apply the coup de
grace to yet another England major tournament failure with an
expertly-taken penalty in the quarter-finals of Euro 2004, and
David James do his best impression of an extinct flightless bird
when he was thrown up front for Manchester City against
Middlesbrough in the latter stages of the 2004-05 English Premier
League season.

Pasfield's spot-kick ability is not in question - he has taken
two penalties in his career and converted both - but he has set
himself more modest goals for tomorrow night: "To do the simple
things well, I think that's the key."

That said, he has not done anything special to prepare. Advice
from his more experienced outfield colleagues has been neither
sought nor given. There have been no exceptional drills, no extra
work on dribbling or passing. The plastic wall the team uses at
free-kick practice still has his reckoning.

So, if he had a choice in the matter, where would Pasfield want
to play? "I wouldn't want to play in midfield," he laughs. "Maybe
up front, though - yeah, up front." Sydney have spent the past two
months in search of a striking saviour: Gianfranco Zola has been
ruled out, while Butcher is working on bringing back guest star
Benito Carbone. To listen to Pasfield, you get the distinct
impression that Carbone is probably the best option.

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